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Gold/Mining/Energy : Boots and Coots International Well Control Inc. (WEL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CBurnett who wrote (196)	4/2/2003 11:47:16 AM
From: Fredman	Respond to of 214

But wouldn't you agree Corning is a much more viable company, that doesn't have ALL of its' eggs in one basket waiting for nothing more than oil well problems and blowouts ? Boots and Coots (WEL) and Wild Well Control (SPN) are both on record as being hired for the middle east problem, yet there is not much of a problem. I still think - if there is a problem there, WEL and SPN will do good, if not, what else can WEL do for income ?

To: CBurnett who wrote (196)	4/2/2003 1:45:56 PM
From: Sir Auric Goldfinger	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 214

DJ IN THE MONEY: Investors Buy, Insiders Sell Boots & Coots (Dow Jones 03/31 16:36:52) By Carol S. Remond A Dow Jones Newswires Column NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Investors looking for a play on the Iraq war have pumped millions of dollars over the past few months into the shares of a company that puts out oil well fires. But while many investors were buying, some insiders of Boots & Coots International Well Control Inc. (WEL) were happy to provide some extra liquidity by dumping thousands of shares into the market. Take Danny Clayton, operations manager at Boots & Coots and president of the company's Venezuelan operations. Clayton, who at one time worked with famous oil and gas firefighter Paul "Red" Adair, sold more than 800,000 shares of Boots & Coots since the beginning of the year. When asked why he sold the stock, Clayton said because "the stock price is up." He then hung up the phone. To be sure, Clayton and anyone else who has owned this stock for some time don't stand to make much money right now. The shares are trading for around 80 cents on the American Stock Exchange. But something is better than nothing and this is a company whose auditor has issued a going concern statement. Tracy Scott Turner, a director of Boots & Coots, also sold shares of the company's stock this year. Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show that Turner sold 5,000 shares in February, while Interra Ventures LLC, a firm that Turner is a founding principal, sold 20,000 Boots & Coots shares. A company that at one time counted Turner as one of its partners sold a big chunk of stock earlier this year. Geneva Associates Merchant Banking Partners General Partnership 1 sold about half a million shares in early February. Turner has not been associated with Geneva since the year 2000. Turner, according to a filing with the SEC last March, controlled 1.8 million shares of Boots & Coots, or 4.2%. He is also a managing member of Specialty Finance Fund I LLC, which, according to SEC filings, controlled more than 8.8 million shares, or 22.2%. Turner declined to comment about Boots & Coots. And others may have unloaded stock, too. In late March, Prudential Insurance Co. of America converted a big piece of a privately placed preferred stock into 12 million shares of Boots & Coots common stock. Prudential declined to comment. But you have to figure that the insurance company began the cashing out process and you can only do that with a security for which there is a public market. Earlier in March, Boots & Coots' stock rose more than 300% on extremely heavy volume on speculation that the company would land some of the business to put out oil fires in Southern Iraq. In fact, the company does have representatives on the scene and is reportedly earning at least $50,000 a day. But it remains in financial trouble with more than $20 million in current liabilities. Meanwhile, Boots & Coots late Friday said it rejected a restructuring plan put forward by one of its creditors, Checkpoint Business Inc. Checkpoint in late January had declared Boots & Coots in default on a $1 million loan extended just a month before. Under the Checkpoint plan, Boots & Coots's restructuring would have taken place by filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Boots & Coots stock under that deal would have been cancelled. To get out from that potential default and onerous bankruptcy plan, Boots & Coots said it repaid the $1 million loan with interest. But what remains unclear is how Boots & Coots could have come up with the money. Boots & Coots' balance sheet showed only $127,000 in cash and cash equivalent as of the end of September, according to its latest SEC filing. Boots & Coots officials were not available for comment Monday. But an outside spokesman said that the majority of the money used to repay Checkpoint came from "continuing operations", especially "operations from Venezuela". The spokesman referred all other inquiries to Boots & Coots. No one at Checkpoint, a firm that was registered last October in Panama, was available to comment. Boots & Coots stock closed Monday at 82 cents, off 1 cent, on 41 million shares. Carol S. Remond; Dow Jones News; (201) 938-2074; carol.remond@dowjones.com